New clinic hopes to relieve pressure on New Brunswick health-care system

New Brunswick health officials are feeling optimistic as a new clinic model works to connect residents without a family doctor to a network of experts.

NB Health Link is designed for people who are waiting for a permanent family physician to give them an option for more in-depth continuous care, as opposed to relying on the ER or walk-in clinics.

“The idea behind this clinic is that we have one chart,” explained Moncton physician Dre. Isabelle-Anne Girouard. “So there’s a central chart where every doctor writes their notes. We write the resume, we contract the blood test, the consult requests, all the investigations that we do are all written in one EMR – so that’s the electronic chart – so when the patient leaves, everything is faxed directly, all of the results come back to us.”

Not only is the link hoping to provide a temporary solution for people waiting for a permeant one, but it is also expected to reduce wait times in local ERs and address some of the backlog.

“If you’ve got an ear ache or a sprained wrist, you’re going to be sitting, whether it’s in the ambulance or in the emergency room,” said New Brunswick Health Minister Bruce Fitch. “So that’s why it’s important to get people connected to a clinic like this and then that will, again, prevent them from having to go into the emergency room.”

Although there is no guarantee that the same physician will be seen every time, those involved with the program say it’s been working well so far.

“We see the ear aches, the sore throats, the belly aches the same day that the patients call and request the need,” said Dre. Girouard.

Adding, “when there’s a follow up, we try to match them with the same doctor, because I was explaining we’ll have recurring physicians that come weekly, but when that’s not possible they will be matched with the new physician in a timely manner.”

The New Brunswick Medical Society says as a whole it is encouraged by the creation of NB Health Link, but adds that at the end of the day it doesn’t solve the bigger issue in the health-care system.

“We really need to look at crisis of family physicians that we have in the province and finding ways to recruit family physicians into communities’ practices,” said current New Brunswick Medical Society president Dr. Michele Michaud. “We need to be able to look at better ways to attract the existing physicians in the province into community practice; we need to better support to ones that are there."

Adding, “I think it’s creating access to unattached patients and giving them care that they don’t have right now… For sure we are hoping that the program gets expanding to other places in the province.”

Currently, NB Health Link has clinics in both Moncton and Dieppe with both in-person, telephone and online visits available.

Officials say the next focus is on the Fredericton region with the Campbellton region after that.

“We know there’s going to be movement all the time on the list as it grows throughout the province, but it’s also providing… making it easier for the patient and making sure that they don’t fall into the cracks,” said Richard Losier with Medavie Health Services New Brunswick.

Right now, Service New Brunswick is contacting residents who are on the Patient Connect NB list.

Officials say that staff calls a potential patient three times and then mails them a letter to try and get them connected with NB Health Link.